Heretofore, since it is difficult to arrange a keyboard such as for a general computer apparatus in electronic equipment such as PDA (Personal Digital Assistants) which is constituted as a portable type in a comparatively small size, electronic equipment which is provided with an input means referred to as a touch panel has been practically produced where various inputs can be carried out by using a finger or a dedicated pen so as to be contacted with the face of the panel.
For example, in a case when a touch panel is constituted on a display panel such as an LCD panel, it becomes possible to be adaptable for complicated inputs by accepting the functional input allotted to the button or key if operation buttons, a keyboard or the like is displayed on the display panel first and then the portion of each portion of the displayed buttons and keys is touched even though it is a panel of a comparatively small area.
On the other hand, electronic equipment provided with an input apparatus referred to as a jog dial for another input apparatus other than a touch panel was practically produced in order to carry out complicated input operations easily in electronic equipment such as a portable telephone terminal. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing one example of a portable telephone terminal provided with a conventional jog dial type input apparatus. In this example, a display panel 2, a dial key 3 and the like are disposed on the front face of a housing which constitutes a portable telephone terminal 1 and a jog dial 4 is disposed on a side face of the housing.
The jog dial 4 is constituted by a rotational member which is rotatable one way and the other as shown by arrows a and b in FIG. 1 and moreover it can be pushed down to a direction of a rotational axis as shown by an arrow c in FIG. 1. In this case, it is designed such that a click feeling is contained to a certain degree with respect to the rotation of the rotational member and a mechanical click is to be generated whenever, for example, the rotational member is made rotated by a certain angle in a range of several tens' degree.
It is possible by providing such a jog dial 4 to carry out various operations which are combined by the rotational operation and the push-down operation. For example, selection of input items (for example, input characters) can be carried out by rotating it in an arrow a or b direction and the selected item can be decided by pushing it down in a direction shown as the arrow c, so that there is an effect that various operations can be carried out easily by using a single operation means. Then, it is constituted such that a mechanical click is to be generated whenever rotated by a certain angle as mentioned above, so that a user can comprehend relying upon the number of clicks generated how much degree (for example, how many steps) it was inputted and the operationality is improved.
Now, in case of a conventional touch panel, there was a problem that a user who is carrying out the operation cannot judge whether or not it was correctively touched until an input corresponding to the touched position is executed after the panel face of the equipment is touched and a sensor in the equipment detects the contact in either case when a finger is used or when a dedicated pen is used.
In a case when, for example, a place where an operation button is displayed on a display panel is touched by an input pen, if such an operation as making a displayed color of the displayed operation button to be reversed is carried out after the condition of being touched is detected by a sensor in the equipment, it is notified that an input is done and it is comprehended that the operation was performed by the contact just after the display panel is touched. However, such a conventional input notifying process is a process for notifying after detecting that an operation was performed and it was difficult to say that it is definitely easy for a user to understand how to touch the panel for completing an input or the like.
More specifically, being different from a case of a physical button or a keyboard, there was a problem that it could not be comprehended whether or not an input is detected in a case when the panel is touched by how much degree of strength, whether or not the button is to be touched in a case when a boundary portion between the portion displayed as a button and its circumference is touched, or the like until the equipment is activated practically. Such a matter can be solved to a certain degree by being acclimated to the operation of the touch panel, but it is difficult to say that it is preferable for operating this sort of equipment, because habituation is necessary for the operational reliability.
Also, a conventional jog dial type input apparatus as shown in FIG. 1 needs an operation member arranged rotatably, so that there is a problem that parts for an input apparatus becomes comparatively large-scaled as compared with a case when push buttons or the like is simply arranged in the equipment. With respect to the operation member constituting the jog dial 4 of the example shown in FIG. 1, the portion which can be seen from the outside of the housing is only a partial portion of the member and it is practically a circular shaped component as shown by a dotted line such that relatively a large cubic capacity is expended for the disposing space of its component inside the equipment. Consequently, a case often happens where it is difficult to arrange the conventional jog dial type input apparatus for the reason of miniaturization of the equipment.
It should be noted that it was explained about an example applied to a portable telephone terminal with reference to the example of FIG. 1, but there is a similar problem also in case of other various electronic equipment on which a similar operation means (input means) is disposed.
A first object of the present invention is to propose an input method and an input apparatus in which operations using an input apparatus of a contact detecting type such as a touch panel can be carried out simply and certainly.
A second object of the present invention is to propose an input method and an input apparatus in which operationality is satisfactory such as a jog dial type input apparatus and at the same time a large installing space is not necessary.